


Quality Time

by What_we_are



Category: Better Call Saul (TV)
Genre: Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Quilting, Sewing, instead of mall walking, loosey-goosey with canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-25
Updated: 2018-10-13
Packaged: 2019-07-02 08:01:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15792384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/What_we_are/pseuds/What_we_are
Summary: In an effort to befriend and influence Irene Landry, Jimmy asks her to teach him how to sew.





	1. Shopping

**Author's Note:**

> If you clicked on this, it's dedicated to you.

As soon as he walked in, Jimmy was overwhelmed by the options. The quilting store had not only every color of fabric, but every pattern known to man. It put the tailor's shop to shame.

Irene explained, "You're going to want about four fabrics. You put the bolts up on the counter with this little place holder bean bag on top while you're shopping. Once you're done, we'll go to the cutting counter." She touched his elbow. "I'm so glad you're getting into this. We never get to talk on Bingo nights."

"Yeah, well, they say learning new things keeps you young, so here I am."

Irene went to go chat with one of the workers and Jimmy walked around aimlessly. He wanted some of each. Maybe not the drab civil war reprints or the white on white patterns, but everything else got his imagination going. He picked out a salmon hued solid, a large print floral with pinks and yellows, a sea foam green with white polka dots, and a red and orange striped one. He set them on the counter and admired how they worked together.

Irene wandered back. "Oh my!" she said. "That's colorful. Do you think it might be too many colors? Usually some of the fabrics match or at least coordinate."

"These coordinate. You got your warm and cool shades, your stripes and dots. It all works together."

They had the lady cut them one half yard of each except the floral which they got more of for the border, backing, and binding. Jimmy didn't know what binding was.

"All in good time. It will make sense when we get to it," Irene assured him.

They also got a good light loft batting to put in the middle. Irene convinced him that light loft was the way to go in New Mexico. Kim should be able to use the throw all the time not just when it was super cold.

Jimmy asked, "While we're here, do we need thread?"

"With all the colors you've chosen, I'm sure I have something that will match. I have a whole plastic tub full of thread. I have to keep it in a tub with a lid, because Felix eats it."

Jimmy nodded solemnly and reminded himself that this was all paid time. The sooner Mrs. Landry trusted him, the sooner he'd get his Sandpiper pay out. There was no better way to get in good with someone than letting them teach you a skill.


	2. Sewing

Jimmy took home his new fabric and admired it in its white plastic bag. He unfolded it all and put it in the washer that the salon used for towels. While it went through a short cycle, he straightened up his room. 

Irene had instructed him to take the fabric straight from the washer to the ironing board, so that’s what he did. He would follow all her advice; then when the time came, she’d follow his.

He didn't have a full ironing board but a towel on top of his desk did the trick. Steam rose from the damp cotton as he applied the iron. Pressing not ironing, Irene had been very specific about that. He was to press the iron down, not back and forth like he was ironing a pair of slacks. When he had a square foot of the striped one done, it occurred to him to turn on some music, because this was going to take a while and was boring as all get out.  


He worked his way through the fabric, transforming it from a warm wet to pile to a nice neatly folded stack.  


His next move was to wait until his next craft date with Irene the following Tuesday.  


***

Irene fluffed each one out like she was putting a sheet on a bed. There was a lot of the pink and yellow flowered one. Laid out on her couch, the colors all looked magnificent. Felix and Oscar poked their heads out from the kitchen and hissed.  


“Oh don’t fuss,” Irene told them. She went on about the material, “Nice, no shrinkage or fading as far as I can see. A little warping on the red and orange one, but we’re cutting it into pieces, so we don’t need a perfect rectangle. This all looks fine. Would you like some coffee to go with the muffins you brought?”  


"Yes, please.”  


After more cat talk, Irene took him into her guest room that she also used for sewing. She showed him the green cutting mat and the rotary cutter. Turns out, cutting fabric was similar to cutting a pizza. She laid down the orange and red material and lined up a huge clear plastic ruler to the edge of it. With the rotary cutter she sliced down the length of the ruler and removed the white part.  


“That’s the selvage,” she told him. “You could try to use it for your quarter inch seam, but I say if you’re so hard up for yardage that you’re incorporating a selvage, you need to find a cheaper hobby. Same with people who do a single binding. Drives me up the wall. You put all this work in, then cut some corners and have an inferior product that gets all warped or falling apart. Knew a woman, years ago, that did a one eighth inch seam. All her seams! An eighth of an inch. Can you imagine?”  


“No, I can’t. That’s outrageous. What happened?”  


“Her quilts fell apart at the seams – that’s what happened. No sir. In this house, it’s always a quarter inch seam. Always has been.”  


“Fine by me. I defer to your expertise. I’m going to be giving this to my friend and I don’t want any shoddy workmanship that’s going to show, down the road.”  


“Of course you don’t. That’s why you came to me and not Dorothy. She’s a nice person, but she uses her machine to finish her bindings. It shows. It shows right on the front, Jimmy. You can plainly see that she doesn’t take the time. This is all about taking the time. You give your lady friend this quilt and she’s going to be able to see every stitch. She’ll be able to see the time that went into it.”  


With Irene’s help, Jimmy cut the fabrics into four inch squares. They saved a lot of the floral one for later.  


Irene said, “Now comes the fun part: you decide how to lay it out. We’re not using a pattern here, so you just lay them out until they look good to your eye. We can use the guest bed.”  


The guest bed had a red, white, and blue Texas star quilt on it. Jimmy hadn't really seen it when he walked in. Some of the tiny diamonds of material had worn through but Jimmy noticed the seams were intact.  


“This is quite a piece,” Jimmy complimented. “Did you make it?”  


“My mother made it. Hand pieced.” Irene pointed to a blue triangle, “That was a dress I used to wear. All these pieces came from somewhere. Clothes or flour sacks. They used what they had to.” It seemed like she might get sad. “Anyway, let’s lay yours out.”  


Jimmy started in the left hand corner and set down squares randomly, but so that no two the same were touching.  


Once he had it laid out like he wanted, they took a break. Irene made egg salad sandwiches and they drank coffee as they ate them.  


It was pretty clear that Irene needed to lay down and have a rest.

“Do you want to call it a day?” Jimmy asked.  


“Sure." 

"We’ve got a lot done. Thank you so much for the lessons. And for the lunch. Can I help clean up?”  


“No. No, It’s fine.”  


“Do I need to put away the quilt pieces? Are you expecting any guests?”  


“They’ll be fine there,” Irene answered. 

***  


When Jimmy returned the next week, his pieces were pretty much where he’d left them, but they were covered in cat hair. Irene didn’t mention it, so neither did he.  


Finally they had come to the sewing part of sewing a quilt. Irene took the two top left squares and pinned them with three pins. She uncovered the machine. To Jimmy’s eye it was expensive, but probably more than a few years old. He thought maybe Irene could be tempted by the prospect of a new one when the Sandpiper settlement came through. How much did these things cost anyway?  


“I’ll do the first one to show you how,” she said. See you line the edge of the fabric up with the edge of the foot. This part here is the foot. So, you line up the edge and the foot so you get a nice straight quarter inch seam.”  


“Always a quarter inch. I remember that much from last week.”  


Irene didn’t seem to have heard him. “Always go backward and forward when you start of finish a seam. It secures it.”  


“Like tying a knot.” Jimmy said.  


“Yes. Now we’ll use tan for piecing because it won’t show anyway. For the quilting you’ll have to pick a coordinating color.”  


“Now, Irene, excuse my ignorance, but which part is the quilting? I thought we were quilting here, putting the squares together.”  


“Oh, bless your heart. This is piecing. Quilting holds the top, the batting and the backing together. It goes through all layers. It shows, so you want a good color.”  


Jimmy smiled and nodded. How long was this process going to take?  


Irene sewed together the first two pieces and ironed them flat, seam to the side. “Some people go open seam, but I’m not one of them.”  


Jimmy replied, “Well then I’m not either. Seams to the side it is.”  


They put back the two squares that were sewn together and ironed. Jimmy pinned together the next ones in line. He got the hang of it pretty quick. Right sides together. Corners lined up.  


The machine was easier than it looked. He went slowly, cautiously.  


After a while, Irene stopped hovering and sat on an easy chair to do her hand sewing. She was finishing a baby quilt, pink on pink. It had a lot of cat hair on it, Jimmy noticed.  


“So, is this going to be able to go through the washing machine or is it a dry cleaning type deal?” He asked.  


“No dry cleaning. You make a good sturdy quilt like we’re making here and it can go through the washer. Wash it in the bathtub with Woolite if you’re nervous, but these are good sturdy quilts. Now, an antique quilt you don’t wash. You maybe put out on a clothes line to sun once a year, but never wash it.  


Jimmy nodded. Oscar or Felix, or whatever, did smell bad, and it had affected the smell of his quilt pieces. This whole thing was fake, but he did want a nice finished product for Kim. 


	3. Quilting

The next Tuesday was so beautiful that they opened the window and got some fresh air into the craft room. 

Jimmy looked at the finished quilt top that had taken hours and hours of work. The colors were amazing; they looked like a bunch of ties in a suitcase bound for Las Vegas. 

Irene admired it in the sunlight.

“It’s easy to feel like you’re almost done, but there’s still a lot of work to do,” she said.

“But the sewing machine does most of that right? That nice set-up you have?” Jimmy asked.

“Oh, no. Maybe if I had a long arm quilting machine.” Irene said. She laughed.

Now Jimmy knew what he was trying to sell.

Irene had him press the quilt top one final time while she did her Jesus cross stitch. Her pink baby quilt was already finished and in the mail to a great grandbaby. She had a big free standing, magnifying lamp going to see the needlework, even though it was bright in the room. Jimmy remembered reassembling all those shredded Sand Piper documents in Chuck’s dim house. He should have invested in one of those bad boys. 

“I’m finished pressing,” he informed her.

“Good. Good. Now we make the backing.” 

It was a simple matter of watching Irene measure the floral fabric against the top and cut two big pieces to form the back. Jimmy stitched them together on the machine, easy as lying.

“Now we make the sandwich!” Irene said, clapping her hands together with joy.

Making the sandwich meant going to the all-purpose community room they used for Bingo and clearing off a big round table. Then they laid the back of the quilt down, good side down, and taped it in place. The corners hung over the edges of the table.Then the cotton batting went down and was trimmed to size. Then finally, the top, good side up. 

“The only way to avoid that overhang is to pin on the floor.”

“Oh, no. Irene, I got bad knees—“

“Don’t worry this will do just fine.” She jumped to another topic as she was wont to do, “See the top is a couple inches smaller just in case things shift in the pinning.”

Jimmy thought pinning would be a couple of straight pins around the edges but Irene rattled an old candy tin full of safety pins.

He started the long task of safety pinning the quilt every six inches. 

Irene helped, but she was slow. 

It was tedious.

Jimmy asked questions to pass the time: Does Oscar scratch when you give him a bath? How many grandchildren do you have? What is a long arm quilting machine? Is it bigger than yours?

Irene smiled. “Humongous. It takes up a room all by its self. It’s about twelve feet wide, like an old fashion quilting circle frame. Oh, I’m not explaining this right. It’s a sewing machine that goes through all the layers no matter how wide or long your quilt is. And you don’t have to pin it first. You just line it up and go.”

“Well, I’m sold.”

They put in the final pin and went back to Irene’s apartment. 

She pointed at her machine and explained, “See this quilt you’re making is relatively small so we can roll it up and fit it through the throat of my machine.” Irene pointed to the few inches of space between the needle and the bulk of the machine on the right hand side.

“On a long arm machine it’s the needle that moves, not the fabric. You’ve got the quilt spread out like a table and you use two big handles to move the needle around.” Irene moved her hands in unison like she was flying a spaceship. 

Jimmy did not follow, but he didn’t need to.

“How much does one of those bad boys cost?” he asked.

“Several thousand.”

“Wow! So, since we don’t have one of those. What do we do?

Irene changed the foot part of the machine and set him up. 

“What color thread for the front and for the bobbin?” she asked, getting out a laundry sized tub of thread.

“What do you recommend?”

“Well. It depends if you want it to show. Although, you have so many colors here anything is bound to show.”

“How about red for both!” Jimmy answered. 

He quilted along an inch from the first seam. The machine pulled the fabric forward now with the walking foot. It was pretty easy to stay straight. He finished the first line and wished Irene was the drinking type. He could go for a drink. 

They took a break and Jimmy ran out to get Pollos Hermanos for their lunch.

After they’d finished the chicken, Irene looked sleepy again. 

Jimmy said, “I should head out. It’s been a long day, what with the diaper pins and everything.”

Irene smiled weakly. “You’re welcome to stay and work while I take a nap,” she said. “I like hearing people around doing things. I wish the walls here weren’t brick so I could hear my neighbors. Not in a perverted way, of course, just hear them going about their days and talking. I used to live with my husband and our four kids and now there’s nobody but Oscar and Felix.”

“I’d love to stay, but I’ve got a thing this afternoon.”

“I understand. It was silly.”

“No, It’s not silly. I just have a thing.”

* * *

The next day Jimmy called Irene and asked if they could meet that day so he could finish the quilting. 

He said, “No use sticking to the Tuesday routine if we both have openings in our schedules.”

He arrived with a raspberry coffeecake. 

Irene read her Christian romance novel in the living room while he worked. 

The quilting went fine. He tried to make parallel lines four inches from each other, so they were about the width of the squares, but not in the seams.

At last, it was done. He pulled the project out from the machine and cut the threads. 

“Oh, Irene. I have something to show you,” he called toward the living room.

“Did you finish?” she asked with excitement in her voice.

“It’s all over but the crying and the binding,” Jimmy answered.


	4. Binding

Jimmy wished he had a kitchen so he could really make something for Irene. Instead, he got a take-n-bake pizza and some Dr. Pepper before he headed over to her house.

“Oh you’re too much,” Mrs. Landry said, as if he’d really done something. 

“Do you like vegetable pizza? I can’t have peperoni or my indigestion acts up.”

“Oh, me too. Me too. No, this is perfect. I used to grow vegetables. A whole big garden. And I canned. I canned tomatoes and beets and apple sauce and green beans. Tons of green beans. We had them once a week, if not more. My husband loved my green beans.” Irene came back to the present. “Let me put the pizza in the fridge for now.”

“Sounds great. The canning I mean. I never much got into beets, though.”

“Oh you would have liked mine. The extra ingredient was cloves.”

“Yum.” Jimmy said. “What’s our next step in the quilt? I told Kim that I’m almost done.”

“No. You have a long ways to go yet. You have to hand sew the edges, remember. If you do it on the machine it looks tacky on the quilt’s front. The only way to do it right is to sew the binding strip on with the machine then fold it over and go around by hand.”

“With a needle and thread?” Jimmy asked, a little bit of trepidation in his voice. 

Irene nodded happily and opened a soda for herself. 

First, they laid the cutting mat on the kitchen table and laid the quilt over it. Then they neatened up all the edges with the rotary cutter. The round blade went through all the layers of the quilt sandwich without any trouble. With the excess backing and batting gone, it looked more like a real finished blanket. Jimmy couldn’t help but be proud of it. 

Irene said, “It’s a fine quilt. And the binding is going to bring it all together nicely.”

They went to the sewing/guest room and got out the leftover pink and yellow floral fabric. 

“Now we need to make a strip of fabric three inches wide, so we can fold it down to one and a half, and then sew it and fold it over the quilt edge and sew it again.”

“You’ve lost me.”

Irene waved her hand as if to brush away his concerns. 

“I’ll show you,” she said.

She fluffed out the fabric over the bed and looked at it. 

Jimmy assumed she was doing some math in her head.

He asked, “Now, if you had a long arm sewing machine would we be done by now?”

“No. This step is the same either way. If we had a long arm, we could have made a pattern in the quilting itself – the red thread that goes along in lines. We could have made it like hearts or scallops or lightning bolts – whatever.”

“Whatever floats your boat, huh? Do the other ladies have them?”

“Nobody in the complex. Why? Don’t you like the way it’s turning out?”

“Of course, I do. I’m just thinking about you . . . neat patterns that you could quilt. It sounds like Allison is going to give you more grandbabies and the means more quilts, right?”

“I suppose so.”

“Well, you know. . .” Jimmy didn’t really want to finish the sentence. 

“With the Sandpiper settlement money I could buy one. I know. And I could move to a nicer place and go on cruises, like you said. I just don’t want to part ways with the friends I’ve made here.”

Jimmy wasn’t sure what to say.

He asked, “You know I get a percentage of the payout too, don’t you?”

“Of course, I do, Jimmy. I know you want me to take the deal. You told me right from the start. I just haven’t decided yet.”

The moment was more sad than anything. 

Jimmy lightened the mood. “Okay then. Let’s do this binding.”

For what felt like the tenth time, Jimmy ironed the fabric. Then Irene helped him cut it into strips three inches wide. They attached all those strips “along the bias” which meant Irene kicked him out of the chair and took over for a minute. 

She held up the long garland of fabric.

“Guess what the next step is?”

“Ironing.”

“You got it.”

He ironed the entire piece down the middle so it was still long, but half as wide. The big print looked good limited like that. You couldn’t see a whole flower, but you got the idea.

Irene got him set up on the machine with the same walking foot they’d used the week before. They kept the red thread in the top spool and in the bobbin. Slowly, Jimmy attached the one and a half inch strip to the side of the quilt, rough edges together because they wouldn’t show in the end. When he was almost done with that, he smelled the pizza cooking and decided to take a break. He lifted his foot off the sewing machine pedal, but changed his mind and finished the task.


	5. Finishing

Over the phone Irene said, “Why don’t we meet at your place, Jimmy. We don’t need the machine for stitching the binding on.” 

“My place?”

Various lies popped up in his head: fumigation, wet paint, broken toilet. The truth was so pitiful that Irene might have thought it was a trick to get the payout money. 

“My place is no good.”

“Why not? I’d like to see where you live. I’m tired of being home. And don’t say ‘the recreation room.’ I’m even more tired of that place. We can’t sew at the food court at the mall. I do cross stitch there sometimes, but quilts are too big. And somebody might spill something, and it’s just no good.”

“My place is very small. Like a studio apartment.”

“So. Do you have two chairs?” Irene corrected herself, “Sorry I’m being so pushy. Over here is fine. I’ll make tuna melts and tomato soup.”

“Don’t go to any trouble. Listen, Irene, my place . . . it’s embarrassing.”

“I’ve been poor,” she answered. 

Jimmy shook his head, even though they were talking over the phone. He cringed. He said “Okay, I’ll pick you up.”

“Oh, I’m so glad. I was hoping you’d say that. See you in an hour?"

“Yep. See you then.”

Jimmy closed his phone.

He looked around his room. 

“God damn it.” 

He put things away as much as he could. He used the salon’s broom to sweep up. He wiped off his desk to provide a clean work surface.

* * * 

He gave her the couch, naturally. He sat in one of the two chairs.

To her credit, Irene looked comfortable and nonjudgmental. 

“Can I interest you in some cucumber water?” he asked. 

“Yes. That would be lovely.”

He left the room and got two cups of cucumber water from the water cooler in the nail salon.

Irene took a sip of hers.

Jimmy took a gulp of his. 

He said, “I don’t have an ironing board in here, but you said we’re done with that.”

Irene gave a little laugh. “No more ironing.”

She took his folded quilt out of the department store bag and set it on the desk. She left her cross stitch in the bag beside her on the couch, but got out a plastic peanut butter jar with supplies inside. 

“Let’s see here. We have a couple of needles, pink thread, and some barrettes. The barrettes are to hold the binding in place while you sew it down.”

“Okay, let’s do this.” Jimmy noticed that Irene was standing. “Let’s both sit on the couch while you show me.”

They sat and Irene asked Jimmy to thread the needle. He got it eventually and they were on their way. 

“Okay. So we want little stitches,” she instructed.

Jimmy did a couple stitches, wearing his reading glasses. 

And Irene checked them using her bifocals. 

“Eye sight is wasted on the young, eh?” Jimmy quipped. 

“It certainly is.”

“Jimmy, do you really live here?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“I’m worried about you . . . about the nail chemicals, the fumes.”

“If it ever became a problem I could stay with my brother.”

“You worked so hard on our case and you have nothing to show for it. I’m going to take the deal. I’m going to take the money. I’ll make new friends.” Irene changed topics, “Does your lady friend know you live like this?” 

“She’s not my lady friend. She’s just . . . a good friend.”

The sewing was easy until he got to a corner. The corners were hard to hold flat and sew at the same time. Part of Jimmy wanted it to be perfect and part of him knew that Kim wouldn’t care when she was snuggled under it. 

* * *

It took two more days to finish sewing on the binding. Jimmy worked on it alone and tried not to think about the payout. Irene might change her mind, he told himself. 

* * *

Jimmy had to go by Irene’s apartment to have her help sew the last little bit. It had to be folded just right and barretted into place, and it was just tricky. 

“Have you thought more about the settlement? What do the other residents think?”

“Oh some of us made promises that we’ll pick a new retirement home together. It’s like friends saying they’ll pick a college together after high school. But we’re also looking at European cruises. I think we’ll actually follow through on that. There’s one that goes through German wine country.”

“Thank you, Irene, for teaching me how to sew and for taking the deal and . . .” Jimmy shook his head. “Just thanks for everything. I was thinking if you’re not busy, maybe you want to be there when I give the quilt to Kim.”

* * *

The three of them met at Olive Garden for dinner. Jimmy nonchalantly put the big wrapped present on the chair next to him. They talked about the Sandpiper case and how Irene might use her money. They talked about the weather and Kim’s work. 

While Kim was in the bathroom, Irene told Jimmy, “You should marry her.”

“She’d never have me. Do you really think she’ll like the quilt? It’s pretty loud-- and look at her – she’s a classy lady in a navy blue suit. I mean that’s her work clothes, but still.”

“She’s going to love it. And she’d be lucky to have you.”

Kim came back to the table and the waitress cleared away all their dishes. 

Jimmy handed the present over to Kim, who accepted it with two hands. 

“Should I open it now?” she asked.

Jimmy said, “Yeah open it. And remember it’s just my first try. It’s not perfect.”

Kim smiled and pulled off the ribbon. She removed the tape and opened the paper. Inside was a masterpiece. At first what she saw was salmon color and the pink and yellow floral fabric. They didn’t seem to match but then she lifted the quilt to unfold it and saw that it was not about matching. There was also sea foam green with white polka dots. And there were red and orange stripes. It seemed like more than just four patterns of material. It seemed like ten. Kim sort of laughed, but Jimmy knew it was because she was very happy, not as any kind of dismissal of his work. She stood up so she could hold it without letting it touch the floor. 

“It’s perfect, Jimmy!”

She kissed him on the cheek. 

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by this prompt:
> 
> Person A’s been going to quilting club with their grandma every week for a few months.
> 
> Person B thought it was just because Person A wanted to spend some quality time with gram-gram.
> 
> While that’s true, Person A is also really excited to gift Person B their new, homemade quilt. (There’s love in every stitch.)
> 
> https://just-another-otp-prompt-blog.tumblr.com/post/173255166373/otp-prompt-224


End file.
